Hey guys, this is Sean with long honeymoon in this video we’re, going to talk about the gory details of the installation and cost of our new solar system that was installed by Ronnie, Dennis Airstream nuts-and-bolts on instagram spoiler alert it’S kind of expensive, so the goal of this video is to help inform all of you do-it-yourselfers out there and you can decide if this is a project that you would like to tackle yourself.
Also, if you’re interested in RV solar, you can decide whether you want to do a package like this or a smaller package, or maybe even a bigger package, because it really all depends on you, your budget, the size of your RV and what Your wife will allow so what we have here is our first solar panel.
Today we are going to focus on the roof there’s, a safety factor that you need to consider, because, even though we’re indoors here, these panels are putting out electricity and we just checked it with the meter.
Let’s. Talk about the solar panels. We have four R energy solar panels; those costs basically 200 bucks, apiece 199 dollars to be exact, so that’s 800 dollars in solar panels. Also, there’s, some other knickknacks up there with them some wiring and a wiring distribution box.
The first step in this solar panel installation is figuring out where you want those panels to go. Those solar panels weigh about 16 pounds apiece. You can put them pretty much anywhere on top of your RV that you want.
We decided it made the most sense to put them sort of oriented towards the rear that weight is pretty evenly distributed up there. So we weren’t really worried about adding that additional 64 pounds of weight and Ronny has developed a special way of mounting the panels on the roof.
We did not drill any holes in our roof to mount those panels. Those panels are mounted using some brackets that Ronnie is developed to mount them to curved roof tops, so it’s. A special little metal bracket that pivots and beneath that metal bracket is a super-strong, 3m adhesive tape.
This is 49:41 VHB tape. It’s, an inch and a half wide by two inches long, and it is actually the same type material that they use to adhere metal panels to the side of aircraft. These feet will actually kind of Bend like that and the contour the roof.
Nice, so there & # 39, ll, be a just. A slight can’t, you know they won’t, be perfectly straight up and down they’ll just be a little bit in. But if you test up it takes the stress off the tape. You know you can stick them down straight, but they always want to peel or lift around the edge.
Well, this gives you the ability to free float that so, essentially our panels are taped to the roof, but to be more accurate, those brackets are taped to the roof. We will be able to remove the solar panels pretty much anytime.
We want like, if we wanted to do a thorough cleaning of the roof or or servicing the panel’s whatever, because all I have to do is unplug the electrical cables and remove those bolts from those brackets.
We did have to run wiring. Of course, from most panels down into the trailer, what Ronnie decided to do is to run that wiring through the refrigerator vent. The next step is to pull some wire. This is a step that is incredibly frustrating.
I want to give a shout out to long long, honeymoon, subscriber David Carley, who showed up to help us, so the wire has to run from the solar panels down into the trailer and then to the front in the back of the trailer comes in through that Refrigerator vent and then it was quite a laborious process to basically fish that wire to the front into the rear of the trailer.
The rear of the trailer is where our Shore power comes in right. The front of the trailer is where we decided to position all of our solar equipment with regard to the batteries and the charger and the inverter and so forth.
Ideally, you don’t want to add weights to the rear of your trailer. If you can help it just because that contributes to trailer sway, Airstream puts a couple of battery boxes in the front of the trailer and they really intrude into the cabin beneath the couch in the front of the trailer each one of those old-school lead.
Acid batteries weighs around 70 pounds of piece, so we removed two of those from the front of the trailer that’s 140 pounds of weight taken out of the front. Then we replaced that with four lithium batteries.
Those weigh about 30 pounds apiece so that’s about a hundred and twenty pounds of weight added, and we added the inverter, the solar charger and some other knickknacks all told on the front of the trailer it’s.
Just about a wash in terms of weight now, once that wire had been pulled, it was time to install the switches and fuses and circuit breakers and so forth in order to complete the installation of all the interior components, some pieces of our Airstream were pulled out For example, we removed the entire couch and the side bolsters we’ve removed the credenza that’s kind of a TV stand that’s in the living area of our Airstream.
We also removed the bed and the top bed platform. One great thing: if you’re dealing with an Airstream, is that pretty much everything inside the trailer can be removed with a screwdriver and we’ll exit the Airstream door.
These have been designed that way, because that’s, the way they are built from the factory we’ve mounted the board where all the new switches and fuses are going to go, and we’re, going to remove the Old DC distribution system and the old charge converter in the trailer, of course, is the solar charger you got to have one of those and it costs about $ 300.
The knick knacks, my friend, add up from a cost perspective. How much do you think we spent on knickknacks, and I’m talking about the sealant, the circuit breakers, the circuit box, copper, lugs, copper, crimp, plug eight shrinks, fuses, multipacks, welding wire, etc, etc.
About 1,700 bucks, so yeah it’s. A lot of money total for all the different knickknacks, all the wiring, all the fuses, all the circuit, breaker and so forth. All the switches Ronnie uses the best quality stuff.
He can get so just to show you the difference in these wires. This is the type of wire that is used by the Airstream factory. You can see the width of it. This would be considered a heavy wire and you can see it’s about double the circumference of the factory wire.
This is the wire we’re going to you can look at the wiring used in our wiring job and it’s, much more robust than what you would see out of pretty much any RV manufacturer. He’s. Getting the best stuff, the best stuff cost some money and that stuff was just purchased on Amazon now, once all those fuses and circuit breakers and all that stuff, we’re in place.
Also, the batteries needed to be wired right. Those batteries cost around nine hundred and fifty bucks apiece. So four of those lithium batteries by battleborn cost about as much as I paid for my first car back in the 1980s, there’s.
No denying that cost a lot of money. However, they last about three times as long as lead acid batteries, and they have more than double the power output for half the weight to get twice the power in three times the lifespan.
So if you do the math they really don’t cost that much more over the long term and they require basically no servicing whatsoever. So they’re sort of worryfree once they’re put in place and set up [ Music ].
Now, in addition to wiring up those batteries, of course, Ronnie wired up that fancy, Vic Tron 3000 watt inverter, the color display panel on the wall and there’s. Also, a battery monitor display on the wall that inverter cost about twelve hundred bucks and the victor on color display costs.
Five hundred and sixteen dollars it’s 61 degrees. Fahrenheit is the battery temperature 240 hours is what it says we have, which is your 10 day limit 24 hours for 10 days. Your batteries are at a hundred percent capacity.
This little guy costs a couple hundred bucks. Also, you can see the way that Ronnie installed it. It involved removing our microwave, oven and cutting a hole in that wall and then mounting it. Once all of those components had been wired, there were two additional pieces of gear the Ronnie wanted to install.
The first is our progressive industry surge protector that went in the back of our trailer beneath the bed, that’s, where the Shore power enters our trailer installation of this seems to be fairly straightforward.
The second piece of gear was the DC to DC charger. This is an optional piece of gear that Ronnie’s strongly recommended. The point of this piece of gear is to protect the alternator in our truck because those lithium batteries can be power-hungry.
And if you’re driving down the highway, they’re, going to be pulling a lot of electricity out of the truck in order to recharge, because that’s. What trailer batteries do when you’re traveling down the highway? Well, that DC to DC charger limits that draw to 40 amps and that will protect our alternator and protect us from having a breakdown, hopefully somewhere on the road right.
You’ll, plug in your 7 pin, just like you normally would when you tow, and there’ll, be another set of wires that you’ll, plug in to the anderson power pole connector to connect the trailer the lithium Batteries to the trucks charging system, and now it’s time for the big reveal.
I want to show you exactly the way this gear looks once we’ve got it all in place and tucked away here it is there’s, our new solar system, how about that 100 % of this gear is concealed from view And it is silent, there is a small cooling fan will occasionally come on in the inverter, but I have yet to hear it when we’re in the trailer because it’s, sort of tucked away and muffled beneath that couch.
Now the one sacrifice we had to make with regard to putting the gear up here had to do with this little storage, drawer, Ronny cut the drawer and it’s, not as deep as it once was. He basically cut and rebuilt this drawer and behind the drawer, of course, are the batteries in the inverter and solar charger and all those fuses switches, circuit, breakers and so forth.
Yeah that’s, pretty incredible. The big conceal ten pounds on a two pound sack yeah. Overall, this is a really brilliant install. You can look at just the quality of Ronnie’s, wiring job and cable management.
It’s, very orderly, organized and logical in the way that it’s laid out, and it definitely took a lot of thought and skill. I really couldn’t, be happier with the way that this gear has tucked away here, so how much labor was involved in doing all this? Well, every job is gonna be a little bit different.
I think you can ballpark roughly 50 hours of labor for a job of this magnitude done to this standard of quality. Ronnie has been doing solar installs for years. Personally, after witnessing him work and seeing what’s involved with this job, I would not recommend that anyone try this themselves unless they have a detailed knowledge of solar systems and of electrical systems, because there’s, a lot of wiring involved.
Every RV is going to be a little bit different because every RV has a different size, a different shape, a different floor plan. Some people go bigger. You know I met a guy in South Dakota who follows long long honeymoon last year.
I believe he had eight to ten lithium batteries and he had six or eight solar panels. It all depends on you, your budget, and how you use your RV for those of you who are going full-time and are thinking about getting out to the desert in quartzite or someplace like that, then a solar system might make a lot of sense for you.
So I know some of you out. There are saying: oh, my gosh, that’s insanely expensive. Well, it depends on how you look at it. Our trailer is 17 years old. Our truck is 13 years old. We’ve, been doing this for more than a decade.
When I talk about boondocking sites. This is what I’m. Talking about behind us is the something hacci River every single year people have asked: when are you guys gonna? Do solar and we decided this year – was the year we’re gonna do solar and we were gonna.
Do it right? So, yes, it cost some money. Yes, we & # 39. Ll make some money back over time. We didn’t really do it. For that reason, it’s, a luxury it’s, not for everyone. If you are simply getting out a couple times a year with your RV and enjoying your local parks or what-have-you, you may or may not want to go for solar.
It all depends on you and your budget for a lot of people. The RV is their happy space, it is their classic car, it is their vacation condo, and for people like that who have the money, it might make a lot of sense to get something like this.
It’s a great luxury and it really enhances the experience of traveling with an RV. Is it necessary? No, nothing’s necessary, except food, water and shelter. Everything else is a luxury. I guess clothing clothing is necessary, at least if I’m going to be on camera.
Oh, but some of you out there saying you’re, a youtuber, I’ll bet. Some of those companies sent you some of those products. That is true. We did approach certain companies and we had certain products provided for us.
Sponsors include battleborn batteries, Victor on Energy, renergie, solar and blue sea, but we paid for a lot of stuff ourselves too, so it’s kind of a mix. We had some sponsors providing some products and we were buying some other products ourselves.
We do a YouTube channel. What do you expect so that’s, it that’s? A look at our solar system and yes, Ronnie, did a great job with the install you got any more questions about. It go ask him, because he is the true expert thanks, as always guys for tuning in we’ll, be making more videos about our solar system throughout the year, but know this has not become the solar Channel.
It’s. Still a long long honeymoon in the future, we will be reviewing more portable bidet. We will be reviewing more good, old-fashioned, politically incorrect, fossil fuel burning generators and we will be blabbing about all those places we like to get so.
Nothing has changed here, except that we’ve added solar and we can speak with experience about solar as well as generators. As always thank you for tuning in you’re new to our channel. Please subscribe.
We’ve got to bump it up step it up. People subscribe and we’ll, be looking forward to seeing you on future videos here at Long Island, hunting minute until next time Lola. This video is brought to you by Potawatomi, but it won’t, kill you rollin rollin rollin.
Keep that camera rollin
